I don't watch a lot of football with commentary in English, but it's amazing how blatantly pro-England the ESPN commentary is. They were discussing how many Wales players would get in the England team even when Wales were winning 1-0. Why do I pay a licence fee for this? (I don't - in Germany they have a dubbed Phil Neville giving colour on England matches and it would be awkwardly embarrassing for all the Germans if he talked complete rubbish.)

But I'm surprised England-Wales finished 2-1. I thought it had 1-1 written all over it from the moment the draw was made. But the scriptwriters have clearly updated their storyline for unusual derby between a smaller but well organised team with only one player anyone's ever heard of and bigger but not as good as they like to think they are neighbours and ethnic relatives viewtopic.php?p=14846#p14846

I've seen plenty of folk on other forums bemoaning the new 24 team format as having negatively affected the quality of football on display and claiming this has effectively ruined the tournament, whilst on the other hand stating that international tournaments haven't been as good since the likes of Mexico 86. Gary Lineker has claimed to be bemused by how it all works in France when he actually played in that tournament in Mexico so should have a pretty good idea...

Anyway thought it quite interesting that the three sides who finished above Scotland in qualifying for Euro 2016 have all made it through to the last 16. Yes I am getting desperate searching for crumbs of comfort because it bloody hurts seeing Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic all in the last 16...

In the round of 16 I'll be supporting Anyone But England As Long As Its Iceland (ABEALAII)

Abealaiiiiiii

That's handy, half of Scotland were apparently already supporting Iceland and the other half were supporting ABE so everyone can get on board with Eujin for some Cameroon style disappointment.

I enjoyed Iceland putting out Austria and hope to see a shock against England (though I'm sure England will win, in fact I've not been so sure of anything since predicting that Remain would win by at least 10 points in the referendum, leading to some Cameron style disappointment).

Also coming up, Croatia (my favourite team in the tournament so far) against Portugal (my least favourite team). Hope there's no Cameronaldo disapp... that's not going to work.

Looks the Cameroon style disappointment has been postponed! Getting a bit tired of England copying Scotland to be honest. Losing out to Costa Rica in the World Cup and getting beaten by small nordic countries was fine a decade or two ago, but these days it's all about staying at home and gearing up for big European club games like Aberdeen v Fola Esch or Hearts v FC Infonet.

For the Euros I reckon it's going to be a Poland v Germany final, which effectively means that because Scotland beat Ireland in qualifying and finished behind these two countries, then Scotland are the 3rd best team in Europe. Or maybe 4th, after Iceland.

While ABE fans drift off to lament yet another tournament without a clear team to get behind in the latter stages, ABEALAII fans are already relishing the upcoming quarter-finals. Including it seems French swimmer Yannick Agnel, who reckons he'll be so pleased if Iceland win that he'll have to swim all the way around it. And I thought it was cold and took ages to drive around Iceland.